Pakistanis Arrest U.s. Suspects

June 13, 2002|By Dexter Filkins The New York Times

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Several men believed to be U.S. citizens have been taken into custody in Pakistan during the past several weeks on suspicion of being linked to al-Qaida, senior Pakistani officials said Wednesday.

The Pakistani officials said most of the men had been picked up along with other suspected al-Qaida and Taliban members in joint American-Pakistani raids in the country's remote tribal areas near the border with Afghanistan.

They said they believe the men form a disjointed network of disaffected Westerners who converted to Islam and have been drawn to militant causes, fighting alongside al-Qaida, the Taliban or guerrillas in Kashmir, the mostly Muslim region claimed by both Pakistan and India.

One of the men is believed by Pakistani officials to be an associate of Jose Padilla, the Brooklyn-born man detained last month on the suspicion that he was trying to build a radiation dispersal bomb intended for detonation in an American city.

He goes by the name Ahmed Mohammed, which Pakistani officials believe to be a false name, as well as Benjamin. It was unclear whether Benjamin was used as a first or a last name.

Pakistani officials said that several of those detained, including Mohammed, claimed to be U.S. citizens. But the officials refused to verify the nationalities of any of the detainees for fear of what one called the "legal implications" that could impede the interrogations.

UNDER INVESTIGATION

Mohammed, a Pakistani official said, was in Pakistani custody and being interrogated by the FBI.

Senior government officials in Washington said Wednesday that they had not yet confirmed that the men being held in Pakistan are U.S. citizens. They also said that they had not yet independently determined whether the men are connected to al-Qaida or other terrorist organizations. The American officials also said that they had not established a connection between Mohammed and Padilla.

Pakistani officials say that they have picked up about 400 suspected al-Qaida and Taliban members in sweeps around the country since December. About 300 of them, they say, have been turned over to U.S. authorities.

They said that some of those detained appear to be Westerners who have been drawn to militant Islam. Pakistani officials said Wednesday that they confirmed a U.S. citizen who had converted to Islam had been killed while fighting alongside Muslim guerrillas in Indian Kashmir in 1998.

They also said they suspected that some of the men recently detained and believed to be Americans may have studied under Mufti Mohammed Ilitimas, a radical Islamic cleric who runs a madrassah in a village near the city of Bannu close to the border with Afghanistan.

John Walker Lindh, the American charged with fighting alongside the Taliban, is believed to have attended Iltimas' religious school, and Pakistani officials say Richard Reid, a British citizen and suspected al-Qaida member arrested in December for trying to blow up a passenger jet with a bomb in his shoes, also may have attended the school.

Alienated Westerners

Iltimas was taken into custody last month during an American-Pakistani operation in the area, and was released the next day.

Taken together, the arrests of Padilla, Lindh, Reid and others appears to offer a glimpse into a world of alienated Western males who apparently dropped out of society and tried to find fulfillment by converting to Islam and fighting for its more radical causes.

One Pakistani official said some of the detained men believed to be Americans may have converted to Islam while serving time in prison in the United States.

Padilla, raised a Roman Catholic who ran up a criminal record, converted to Islam when he married a Muslim woman of Middle Eastern descent. Reid was a British citizen who converted to Islam while serving time in prison.

A Pakistani official said his government was looking into the possibility that Reid and Padilla were associates during their alleged time as members of al-Qaida.

Pakistani officials said five other men believed to be of Pakistani or Middle Eastern origin, were detained in France Wednesday on suspicion of being linked to Reid.

5 more detained

The officials also said Wednesday that they had detained five more people in Pakistan who are believed to be Pakistani citizens and associates of Padilla. At least some of those detained are believed to have knowledge of Padillas' activities in recent months.

The Pakistani officials said that they were also searching for a group of women and children who are believed to have stayed in the same al-Qaida hideout used by Padilla and Abu Zubaydeh, the senior al-Qaida commander arrested in Pakistan on March 27. American law enforcement officials believe Zubaydeh formed a close association with Padilla.